Taking on the unions

The lefties are rather mad at me this morning.The other day some of the police officers here in Macon, GA where I’m on city council suggested they were going to form a union. I, in turn, suggested I was going to push to shut down the police department and contract with our local sheriff for police protection.Makes sense to me. A public sector union pits public servants against tax payers and a police union pits those who protect against those they protect.I have a column on this today in our local paper.Here’s an excerpt:

Admittedly, we need to do something to improve our police department. Pay is crummy and morale is bad. I have long advocated changes in the department’s leadership, and I think we should still consider it. Likewise, we have the ability to implement a pay scale if Macon’s City Council were willing to make tough choices about benefits.Nonetheless, a unionized police force would be cutting off the officers’ noses to spite their faces. We should probably consider firing them just on principle.According to several lawyers I have talked to, unionized police in Georgia do not get the benefits of collective bargaining with the city relating to the terms and benefits of employment. Likewise, they do not get to strike. But they do get to join and pay dues. If they want to throw their money away, sure, let them unionize. Knowing, however, that we have officers on payroll who have no problem throwing money down the drain suggests a purge might be worth considering.Unions served a useful purpose in this country once, but that time has long since passed. We know that unions drive up costs. American car manufacturers are a testament to union costs and inefficiencies. Non-union automakers routinely out perform union automakers. Union work costs more than non-union work. Union rules regarding employee discipline incentivize lazy, undisciplined and selfish workforces.We know that unions take thuggery to a new level. All one needs to see are videotapes of health care town halls throughout August. The assemblies might have been vocal, but were without violence until the SEIU and AFL-CIO showed up. A unionized police force would be just one more gang our police would have to deal with.